One With Nature....

Over the 4th of July weekend Jake and I had the opportunity to go backpacking for the first time together (first time for me all together!)! We went up into the Uinta Mountains with Jake's dad, his 4 brothers, 2 sisters, and 1 brother in law. We were quite the group. :) We left Salt Lake around 4:30am on Thursday morning and drove up to the trail head. When we got there, we all got our packs on (everyone's packs were ranging from around 35 to 60 pounds) and off we went! The hike started off pretty good. The group ended up splitting into two groups....the fast group and the slow group. :) The slow group was comprised of the 4 oldest people in the group...and then me... :) I guess that's what I get for marring an old man! :) (Just Kidding sweet heart!) Anyways, when everyone got to the top of the mountain we all met up again and walked down the other side of the mountain towards Granddaddy Lake. The whole time that we were hiking we were supposed to be looking for this sign that pointed us to another path to take us to the other side of the lake....well....we kept walking....and walking....and walking...and we kept getting closer and closer to the lake...but no sign in sight. Jake's brother Tyson ended up leaving the trail and going down towards the lake and realized that we were on almost the complete opposite side of the lake that we wanted to be on. So at this point, I think everyone started to get a little bit grumpy after having hiked 3 or 4 miles (the total amount of what we were supposed to do) and was now going to have to hike another 2 or 3 miles to get to the spot that we wanted to be at. At this point we decided that we were not going to be fooled again by looking for the sign, so we decided to all go down by the lake and just hike by the lakes edge..........maybe not the best idea. Most of the land around the lake was soggy from snow run off and very difficult to walk across without getting your boots wet. But after getting across the sloppy grounds, we FINALLY MADE IT TO THE PERFECT CAMPSITE! Everyone set up their tents and then gathered together to start setting up the fire area. All of the boys walked around and found the perfect sitting logs and made a lovely area for us to hang out around the camp fire. Overall, the campsite was pretty sweet. Well, after setting everything up, we were all so tired after having woken up at 4am that we all decided to take a nap. We all slept for a few hours...luckily while it was raining (it didn't start raining until we were all asleep). When we all woke up, we built a fire and started cooking the amazing steak dinner that we packed in. :) (yeah, we pretty much ate like a King during this trip...but I guess we paid for it with how heavy most of our packs were. :)). After dinner we sat around the fire and roasted smores and popped pop corn. The first night in the tent though was a little rough...not because it was uncomfortable...because it was actually really nice since we had sleeping pads...it was more because I was paranoid about every little sound that I heard out in the woods. Eventually it started raining again, and I think that helped me fall asleep. The next morning we had another amazing camp meal of bacon, bagels and cream cheese. After breakfast the boys decided that they were going to make spears out of branches with their hatchets and knifes. Once all the boys had all of their spears whittled down to perfection, we all made the hike over to a nearby stream. All of the brothers had their spears in hand and the girls had fishing poles. Well, to make a long story short (because this post is probably going to be so long that no one will read it all) the boys ended up spearing 8 fish and the girls ended up with only 1 fish using their poles! I thought that was pretty funny and ironic. But the best part about that whole trip was when Maggy decided that she was going to catch a fish with her bare hands. As she was bending over for the attack, I was across the stream to capture the victory...when all of a sudden I have this fish fall into my lap! I was a little shocked at first but I was able to compose myself and grab a shot of the floundering fish. :) After that adventure, we all hiked back, cooked up the fish, and hung out for the rest of the night. Luckily that night and the rest of the trip it never rained another drop...we were really lucky. The last full day that we were out there we mostly just hung out around the camp, trying to finish off all the snacks and treats so that we wouldn't have to hike them out. Later in the afternoon, we climbed the rocky mountainside to see the view of the whole lake. This was also nice because it got us away from the tons of mosquitoes that were everywhere around the lake, if you don't believe me...just ask Tyson... :) But after hanging out for a little bit, Jake started throwing rocks at this bigger rock...and naturally we all joined in. It's amazing how even the most simplest games make the competitiveness in us come out. :) After we all threw our arms out and took a few crazy pictures, we walked back to the camp and played a few games with some dice that we brought up. We enjoyed our last night with some more smores and popcorn and got ready for our early morning departure. The next morning, we woke up at 5am so that we could leave camp by 6:30. On our hike back we decided to just climb up the side of the mountain towards where we thought the trail was going to be...and what do you know...we found the trail that Gary was looking for on the way down! In his defence there was so sign like there used to be the last time he came there...but if we ever go back there, we will know right where it is! :) But we ended up leaving so early because on Sunday afternoon one of my new nephews - Gavin Paul Renshaw and a new niece - Reese Renshaw (they are my two brothers kids) were going to be blessed. So we raced down the canyon and arrived at my brothers house straight off the trail. I'm sure we didn't smell all that great and didn't look all that fresh since neither of us had showered since the Wednesday before, but luckily family doesn't seem to care about that all that much. But both blessings were beautiful and both of them are so darling. The sad part about that though is that my memory card was full, so I didn't get a chance to take pictures of them...so these last few are borrowed. :) But that was our amazing 4Th of July backpacking trip. Everything couldn't have gone any better. But for my first backpacking trip ever, I think I kicked butt! If anyone ever wants to go, Jake and I are always up for it! :) I hope everyone had a happy 4th!